BOE Dedicates $5M Extra to Capital Projects
The money came from a number of sources, officials say
School officials will have an extra $5 million to put toward capital improvement projects following a decision made on Thursday night.
The Board of Education voted unanimously to allocate $5 million from surplus into a capital reserve account, which can be used to make improvements to school facilities. The money can also be coupled with state grants in order to significantly expand the total amount of work that can be purchased.
Business Administrator James Edwards said on Thursday that the district came into the unexpected money due to extra savings from a shared transportation services agreement with the township and from the district's switch from a private health insurance provider to the state's public health insurance service.
Edwards said a high number of district employees have spouses that also draw insurance from state accounts and therefore the district has saved at least $1.2 million since family members are no longer covered under the Brick employee's account. The district also saved a significant amount of money by switching prescription plan providers to Medco.
The money will totally be dedicated to capital improvements, Edwards said.
"Once it's put into the capital reserve account, it has to be used for capital improvements," he said.
Additionally, money in capital improvement accounts is immune from the potential for the state to order local school districts to turn over surplus funds, which happened last summer, Edwards said.
Board President Sharon Kight said the facilities and operations committees will begin researching which improvements should be made to school facilities immediately. Grants for which the district qualifies run out Jan. 1, 2012, so officials must determine where the money should be spent by the end of the year.
walt tupycia
7:30 am on Friday, June 24, 2011
so recind the tax increase.
clamdigger
7:57 am on Friday, June 24, 2011
This is truly amazing but fantastic news.
The real interesting part will be to see how the money gets spent and what "improvements" are actually made.
annalembo
7:59 am on Friday, June 24, 2011
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Iowa pork producers association, the agreement with South Korea will create 40,000 pork industry jobs in the state and high paying manufacturing jobs will probably move to South Korea. They want to trade good paying manufacturing jobs for non-living wage jobs... Thanks to "High Speed University" i have a job now
ZeroHedge
9:29 am on Friday, June 24, 2011
SURPLUS, SURPLUS, SURPLUS.......ITS A SCAM AND WHERE ALL THE MONEY IS ALWAYS HIDDEN
NJ resident
11:39 am on Friday, June 24, 2011
My concern is that governor Christie will take that surplus again - remember last year.
joseph
12:42 pm on Friday, July 22, 2011
Apparently that is why This new BOE decided to transfer the 5 million in surplus to capitol projects. If the BOE under Woska, Reinhold and Terrorbush had transferred that surplus a few years ago to Capitol Projects than the Governor would not have been able to steal this money. Bad choice to the old Board, Good Choice to the New board.
Melissa Thomson
12:42 pm on Friday, June 24, 2011
Please start with Brick High School. It is a disgrace.
Lori Morrison
2:26 pm on Friday, June 24, 2011
I totally agree- Brick High is in sad shape. I graduated 30 years ago from Brick HS and nothing has been upgraded, repaired or replaced.
Alice Tulecki
1:21 pm on Friday, June 24, 2011
I find this information to be a reminder for the next election. These new funds NOW available were not suspected before the election? The commotion about all the MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS needed especially for BRICK HIGH……DOORS, LOCKS, WINDOWS – come under Major Improvements! These should have priority to be repaired IMMEDIATELY. Now with available funding we have to waste time on locating problems! Why can’t they pull out the publicity on the needed school MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS and start there immediately?
joseph
11:00 am on Sunday, June 26, 2011
Alice, no one is wasting time looking for projects to do. The projects have already been designated by a community facility committee that has been working on this with the boe architecht for over a year. The boe, now after going through the failed budget and coming to the year's end expenses has ear marked this money from savings to enhance the projects that are subsidized by the state money available in grants they applied for. Why would this be a reminder for the next election, unless you are reminding the residents how financially responsible the boe has been and their intentions to fixing schools that haven't been addressed or maintained in years???? I think you should speak to some of the members or attend a meeting and see what a good job they are doing. You may be very surprised!
melissa
1:45 pm on Friday, June 24, 2011
Our schools are falling apart. The sinks are coming off the walls and spray all over the place in the bathrooms. We don't even have the real toilet bowl lids (they are made of wood) and we are paying for new programs that make more work for the teachers and are making our children have lower test scores. Why would we only have our high school young adults only be learning math for part of the school year? This doesn't make any sense!!
Use it for our children's safety! There is a rise in gang activity and drugs in junior and high school. The schools have not been updated at all. Why are we hiding the money when we could be using it for the right reasons? Air conditioning should be in our schools also. When we had to make our children leave early due to the heat. Jackson's school were still occupied by their students. I have four children in Brick schools and know we are not heading in the right direction. Someone needs to really take a look at what the real issues.
bths06
3:15 pm on Friday, June 24, 2011
To bring up Jackson is a good point, only Jackson Memorial was sent home early during that last week. The reason, only school with out air conditioning...
Also, test scores I though they were up this year. I though I read that on here that the scores were up. If I am mistaken, my mistake but I though that I heard test scores were up since block scheduling was put into place.
melissa
4:23 pm on Friday, June 24, 2011
Jackson Middle school did not go home. I have a friend that lives there and her son was there all day. Our children are hot and cannot concentrate in 95 degree heat. By speaking to parents is the only way to go. Students are having trouble with the block schedule and the everyday math program. Kids have had to have tutors to keep up with the new program. There is no reason to learn 5 different ways to know how to add. Science and social studies were hardly spoken about in school this year.
Teachers have said it is too much for the students. Asking 4 teachers is not enough to base this assessment on.
melissa
4:24 pm on Friday, June 24, 2011
Jackson Middle school did not go home. I have a friend that lives there and her son was there all day. Our children are hot and cannot concentrate in 95 degree heat. By speaking to parents is the only way to go. Students are having trouble with the block schedule and the everyday math program. Kids have had to have tutors to keep up with the new program. There is no reason to learn 5 different ways to know how to add. Science and social studies were hardly spoken about in school this year.
Teachers have said it is too much for the students. Asking 4 teachers is not enough to base this assessment on.
Brick High schools bleachers need to be updated also.
walt tupycia
4:56 pm on Friday, June 24, 2011
do not forget all the sports equipment new weight room new artificial fields new salaries for all the new coaches.
clamdigger
9:19 pm on Friday, June 24, 2011
installing "Turf" fields at the 2 High Schools would be an excellent idea. These fields are long lasting minimal maintence and can be rented out for training sessions for outside leagues & clubs.
clamdigger
9:16 pm on Friday, June 24, 2011
I cannot see the reason to spend hundreds of thousands of $$ to put a/c in the schools when it's only needed for about 5-6 weeks out of the year. The days are no hotter then when all of you were in school and realistically isn't cost efficient.
Mrs. G.
4:53 pm on Thursday, July 21, 2011
Yes - but when I was in school, we did not have central air conditioning at home or in our cars. We did have window units at home - but they were only used in an extreme heat wave. I would not want my child to go to school today without air conditioning
because they would not be able to function like we did.
John Barton
7:06 pm on Saturday, June 25, 2011
I guess paying administrators and teachers, but telling them to wait a month before they can go to work isn't poor budgeting. But paying two coaches when only one worked; well that is just messed up and I bet it is close to 50,000 this month for that mistake.
BTW, you should show up at the BOE and the Pre BOE meetings. Nobody knows and nobody goes. The July meeting could be a real shocker. And, if the right people got and get elected in April the work of the BOE would not be gonig backwards like it is. I call it reinventing the wheel ........ Budget this, the only one that knew the costs of the budget was the Super and Mr Reid can't understand why our kids made it to the tournaments this year. It was budgeted correctly.
john talty
6:33 pm on Monday, June 27, 2011
Mr. Barton
according to the agenda the cost was a little more than $5,000 dollars and that is because the coach who was not hired filed a grievance and the contract in fact was violated and the present BOE paid for the mistake that the previous board and Administrators made. Hope this clears it up for you.
joseph
1:06 pm on Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Mr. Barton, I would suggest you review the teachers contract and I think you would see that coaches are part of the grievance procedure. I think Mr. Talty explained it clearly that The one coach was grieved by the previous board and present Administration and the new BOE rectified that mistake which resulted in a payment of $$, that's the way grievances are settled, if the grieved was wronged.
I guess this BOE has some issues with the Superintendent in regards to the transfer of some of the school personnel. I remember the debacle of the transfers of administrators last year, so lets make sure the same doesn't happen again this year with the teachers.
I would suggest you continue to attend all meetings and stand up for the public and even ask Mr. Talty for a more detailed explanation of what transpired with the coach who got paid for not coaching. I would be interested in what actually transpired with this case. I will look forward to you being at the next BOE and your enlightening questions and comments at the podium in July.
joseph
10:52 am on Sunday, June 26, 2011
Mr. Barton, I guess you have a good source of inside information on the BOE. I encourage you to attend all meetings and stand up for the people who are not in attendance. I think you should stay on top of Mr. Reid and challenge him everytime you come to the meetings. I think you should gather a rally cry for the super. You sound just like the man to get the job done. Keep up the good work! We all look forward to your enlightening comments at the podium next month.
John Barton
6:36 am on Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Mr. Talty,
The current BOE voted to pay the coach that didn't work. Since when have coaches contracts been a part of union grievance? An apology letter should have sufficed, this person is about working with children and he understands what the district just went through economically.
As for the position transfer discussion, after the pre-agenda meeting and after minutes to the general meeting, I would say more discussion costs the district a substantial amount. Holding one administrator from moving to the new position for another month is probable a $10,000.00 lost all by itself.
Aside from spending money on someone that can't go to work until the transfer gets approved, the discussion should have been prior to the meeting on the 23rd. Do you agree?
John Barton
7:21 am on Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Mr. Talty,
Who was on the previous board?
melissa
11:00 am on Sunday, June 26, 2011
We really should get more people to the meetings. More people should get involved.
David Fischer
12:16 pm on Wednesday, June 29, 2011
We need to concentrate on the future of our schools and one way is through improvements to the buildings. A group of concerned citizens, the facilities committee, has been working for months toward that end by analyzing various grants and proposals. I think everyone should attend the future BOE meetings so that they can stay informed.